No More Stinking Data Plans

Image credit: ZDNet

Ok, I’ve stolen that title from Jason Perlow on ZDNet.  And I’ll steal from myself quite liberally, in just a moment.  That’s because I fully agree with Jason, who makes the point that Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab is an attractive device, but he really wants to just outright buy it, without yet another data plan contract. His logic is simple: the Samsung Tab is a supplementary device, it will not cause extra data usage.  How many times should we pay for the same thing?   And this is where I “steal” from myself:

Remember this?

Yes, phones looked like that.  And there was a time when phone companies (Ma Bell) charged extra when you had more then one outlet in your home….

Remember the early days of cable TV?   You had to ( well, were supposed to) pay extra for each additional cable outlet.

How about the early days of the Internet, before wireless became pervasive?  Yes, ISPs expected us to pay extra for each outlet.

These anachronistic charges are all gone – we pay for the service, no matter what device we use to access it.

So why would wireless access be any different?  We will soon have an increasing number of devices, but the underlying service is the same.  In fact chances are when I use my iPad (or the Samsung Tab), I will not be using my Netbook / Notebook, or browse the Net on iPhone, Android phone…etc. As a consumer I may own a variety of situational devices, but chances are I will only use them one at a time.

It’s time wireless providers wake up to the 21st century and charge for consumption on a per account (person) basis, not per device.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Samsung: I don’t need another data plan on my Tab (zdnet.com)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab: Good news and bad news (infoworld.com)
• What’s The Price Of The Galaxy Tab, Samsung? (pcworld.com)